Food For Thought

There is a new eatery at Botanic Gardens, near the Tanglin Gate. The former eatery vacated the premise for more than a year. Food For Thought is certainly a welcome sight and a great convenience to the residents around Botanic Gardens.
Food For Thought (FFT) is primarily a western restaurant but it does have a few local dishes such as egg and toast, mee rebus, rendang, laksa under local breakfast/ lunch items. I love its breakfast: Greek Yoghurt with choice of two toppings ($5) which I have had for a couple of mornings now. :) My colleagues at work would be delighted that I am at last eating healthy rather than having Mckkies lol. :P
We tried a few lunch dishes at FFT: Pulled Pork Burger ($8) which was fantastic (no pic); Bacon Potato Onion Salad ($10) which was light and filling at the same time; Laksa ($5) which was spicy with a kick (no pic); and Grilled Barramundi Fillet ($20) which was fresh and the mashed potato really creamy.



For dessert, the Red Velvet cake ($5) is a hands-down winner. :) The cranberry scone ($3) is good too, especially with the cream and FFT's unique dragon fruit jam. The spiced carrot cake ($5) is delicious as well, not too sweet.

Red Velvet cake, scone and carrot cake as take-away (will get better pics next time)

With FFT so close by, we would be visiting it frequently. It would weekly for me lol. Click here for the Food For Thought website if you would like to take a look at its Botanic Gardens menu. If you are in the vicinity of Botanic Gardens or at the Botanic Gardens itself, try Food For Thought. It would give you lots of thought for food. :P

Christmas at the Gardens

Here are some photos of the Christmas decor at the Botanic Garden.

Picnic in the Garden

My mother bought a picnic mat from China and the girls have been pestering my parents to bring them to the Botanic Garden for a picnic. So for the past week, my girls and their maternal grandparents have been picnicking at the Botanic Garden. My parents would bring them over to the garden around 4 pm and they would come back around 5 pm plus.

Before going over to the garden, my mother would cook something so that they have it as dinner at the picnic. So far, she has cooked different things everyday such as fried rice, fried noodles, fried rice cakes, etc. She also prepared a flask of tea for the picnic as the girls liked to drink tea. The girls would have their food first before running about in the garden. They really enjoyed the picnic sessions as they would tell me all about it each day when I come home. After the running around in the garden, both girls also knocked out faster than usual at bed time, lol.

Today, they went for a picnic again. But I didn't join them as I wasn't feeling too well the night before and I thought I shouldn't over exert myself. I had the chills and a slight fever last night but I was all better after taking a teaspoon of the girls' paracetemol, that was the only fever medicine I could take without getting an allergic reaction, lol. I went to see my doctor this morning. I have arrested the flu before it could develop further, lol. :P Now I feel all better already. :)

Happy Chinese New Year: Day 3

Usually by Day 3 of CNY, it is back to work for most of us. However, this year, the 1st and 2nd days of CNY happened to fall on Thursday and Friday. Thus, we have a long weekend to enjoy. :) But I think most of us welcome the extra 2 days to rest after all the CNY activities (visiting, eating, drinking, etc) on the first 2 days, lol. Well,I certainly did. :)

In the morning, my parents took the girls to the Children's Garden, an extension of Botanic Gardens. I was too tired to follow them lol. Maybe another time. Besides, I needed to go to Qantas Holidays to get my air ticket for travel to Melbourne and Sydney in late March. I am a Frequent Flyer of Qantas so I always travel on Qantas. My experience with Qantas since 1990 has always been most pleasant. But a good friend of mine probably won't say the same, lol. I think my flight was only delayed once and I actually got to wait and rest in the Qantas Lounge at Sydney Airport where food and drinks were provided, lol. :P Sorry, I digressed. However, when I got to the ticket office, it was closed and would only open on Monday. Sigh. I have to wait till Monday then to get my ticket. I hope they will still have direct flights to Melbourne because I am flying on the eve of Good Friday.

The girls' father and I went to have lunch at The Marmalade Pantry, Palais Renaissance on the spur of the moment. We were lucky to get a table although we didn't make a reservation. :) Without the children, we had a quiet lunch. I literally mean quiet. We didn't talk much which was fine by me because I enjoyed just eating, tasting and appreciating every bit of my food!

We shared the Soup of the Day: Chicken and Corn Chowder ($8). Knowing that we were going to share, they split the soup into two bowls and also gave each of us a slice of the cheese bread. That is what I call good service! :) The soup was pretty ordinary though.
The girls' father had his usual: Scrambled eggs & sausages on toast with field mushrooms ($15). I had the Linguini with crabmeat tomato chilli & pinenuts, minus the chilli ($19). Although I had this dish a couple of times, I still love it. The fresh sourish tomato puree really complimented the crabmeat and the pinenuts completed the taste. :) Sorry, no pictures because I forgot to bring my camera. :( Of course, we didn't leave empty-handed. I had some cupcakes for take-away for the girls and for my friends.

After lunch, I went over to check on my friends' cat, BC. He is okay. Again, he was most happy to see me and showed me his appreciation. :) I really adore that cat! :)

"Scary" (Amusing) Day

Juliane woke up early and decided to follow her grandmother to the market. After the marketing, Juliane followed her father to get the car. When in the car, she (in the back seat) pointed to the front passenger seat window and said, "Boy". My husband who was about to start his car, looked out the window but he didn't see any boy. Juliane again pointed out the window and repeated, "Boy! Boy!". Hubby again looked but there was NO boy. Then hubby started to PALE! He was thinking, "Oh no, please don't let it be like "The Sixth Sense" where the boy "sees dead people"! Is she seeing something by the window?!". He remembered that last scene from the movie where the dead cyclist was outside the car window. He said he froze and the thing that went through his mind was "Please don't let 'it' be by the window!". It was then when Juliane pulled him closer to the window to look...

Oh, there was something out there, alright. But it was not a boy, it was a broom. Juliane had mispronounced "broom" as "boy"! HAHAHA. My hubby is really quite a scaredy cat! LOL. If it had happened to me, my reaction would have been, "Where? Where? I want to see!". Hahaha. That is how different we are with regards to the supernatural. Hahaha.

***
My mother and I took the girls to the Botanic Gardens. It seemed very crowded this morning. The girls were by the swan pond feeding the fishes while I went round snapping pictures. I am trying to pick up a hobby. Hehehe.





***
We had lunch at Shashlik Restaurant, Far East Shopping Centre. Never mind the decor, the food is not too bad, especially the desserts. Hahaha. I had wanted the Baked Alaska but was deterred by the 15-20 minutes wait for it. I went for the next best, Banana Flambee. The dessert is cooked by our table: the banana was cooked in butter, grated peanut and a spoonful of liqueur, after which it was poured over a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Hmm... really aromatic and yummy. =)

An Eventful Saturday

This morning, my mother and I brought the girls to the Botanic Garden again. The Botanic Garden is a really good place to educate the girls about nature. Thank goodness, I was a Science teacher before, could at least explain things to the girls. The girls were thrilled to see the swans, a lizard, a family of squirrels, dragonflies, and different flowers up close.

Guess who is the real McCoy?

The top pic is the reverse of the second pic (actual pic)

Reflection of the sky and tree from the pond

In the afternoon, an old family friend and us (my mother, my girls and I) went to Orchard Hotel for Afternoon Tea. The international spread was quite good. The girls became a little high after munching on all the sticks of marshmallows. Hahaha. We were there from 2 pm to 4:30 pm. No need for dinner! Hahaha.

In the evening, we said Farewell to an old friend, my father's car. It was a dark blue Citroen Xsara which has been with us since November 1998. It has served us so faithfully all these years, seldom having any major problems. Thank you, old friend. May you Rest in Peace.

Farewell, old friend! Rest in peace.

We also said Hello to a new friend. It is a dark silver Toyota Yaris which arrived today. Welcome to your new family!
Hmm...maybe it is about time I learn driving again since there is a brand new car at my disposal as my father is often not in Singapore. Hahaha.

Hello! Welcome to the family.

Nature walk

Despite being unwell (Yes, again. It's that bloody flu bug still.), my mother and I brought the girls to the Botanic Garden. I thought the fresh air might do me some good too after being cooped up in the house for two days. (Actually, there was another reason: I wanted to eat the Butter & Sugar toast at the food court because today is veggie day and I get hungry very fast. Hahaha.)

We started off at the new extension, Tanglin Gate and made our way to the big pond and then back to Tanglin Gate. We saw the white swans at the pond. Are they the same white swans that I have seen during my younger days? Can't be, right?! Then my mother told me swans can live up to 30 - 40 years. Ok, I learn something new everyday. But then where are the ducks? I remembered seeing some ducks before they renovated the pond. We didn't see them today. Maybe they are in hiding somewhere as I said before they look good as roast duck. Hahaha. On the way, as my mother looked after the girls, I took some photos of nature - flowers, trees, water, ...

After looking at greenery and breathing in fresh air, I did feel better. Or maybe it was the toast after the walk...... Hahaha. :)